Introduction to the Programme

Our BA Honours Fashion Design degree will equip you with technical skill, support your creativity, and encourage you to develop your identity as a designer. You will cover a vast array of topics such as fashion illustration, portfolio presentation, technical drawings, garment construction and pattern cutting, corsetry, and tailoring.

Course Highlights

During this programme you will not only learn the knowledge and practical skills essential for a successful career in fashion design, but also develop self-confidence, a willingness to challenge yourself, the ability to work with others, and the skills to discover and define your own design identity. You will focus on individuality and be encouraged to question everything, and learn within a multifaceted environment in which to research, challenge, design and create. Our programme allows you to experience both menswear and womenswear design, giving you an opportunity to explore, develop and focus on your strengths.

Programme Content

In your first year you will focus on developing technical skills, including pattern cutting and garment making, alongside your creative design skills. Your second year further develops these skills, and includes a menswear tailoring project and a 2D to 3D translation project where you recreate an outfit by a design and create a range of your own designs influenced by this. The third year gives you time to focus on the specialisms you have developed over previous years and hone your skills for your final portfolio work. Your final collection can be based on anything you are inspired by, and by this point you will be fully prepared to enter the fashion industry with your own design identity.

Year 1

Fashion Design Skills
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

This project runs during the first term and will introduce you to essential, core fashion design skills. It will provide a comprehensive grounding in concept and design development, underpinned with technical workshops exploring basic flat pattern-cutting and garment production skills. You will be introduced to the pattern-cutting studios where much of your work will take place, promoting a culture of studio working practice, fostering discourse and a sense of fashion community.

Fashion Collaborative Projects
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

During the second term, you will explore intermediate flat pattern cutting and garment production skills through a series of technical workshops. Facilitating an understanding of collaborative practice within the fashion industry, you will typically work in teams, either within the programme or with other disciplines, to produce collaborative responses to fashion briefs. You will develop a greater awareness of your own role as a designer within the broader fashion design process, promoting an interdisciplinary experience, cross fertilisation of practice and knowledge transfer.

Research and Communication
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

This module runs year-long. It will introduce you to the visual research skills essential to fashion design, investigating contemporary and historical fashion, through a range of cultural resources including magazines, film, gallery exhibitions and museum collections. You will consider the way in which project work is presented and communicated to an audience through a variety of outputs including social media, printed matter and online content. You will explore ways of organising and presenting your visual research, using digital and traditional methods, such as hand drawing and relevant computer-aided design tools.

Fashion History and Theory
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

Throughout this year long module, we will introduce different ways of looking at and thinking about fashion, providing an introduction to historical sources and narratives as well as key cultural and contextual theories. You will be encouraged to draw connections between fashions from the past and the present to encourage you to understand the rich cultural and social meanings of clothing and adornment in Western traditions. We cover a broad range of visual and material research methodologies, enabling you to be resourceful and explore different archives and historical collections in a hands-on way.

Year 2

Fashion Culture and Industry
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

To build upon the core academic research and communication skills introduced in the Fashion History and Theory project, you will develop your specialist knowledge and understanding of critical issues in contemporary fashion, related to the production, consumption and mediation of fashion as a global aspect of both culture and industry. We will cover key economic, social and theoretical concepts and explore how they influence the material, visual and consumer culture of fashion, challenging dominant historical narratives and unpicking fashion’s mythologies from a global perspective. You will develop your own independent research interests in contemporary fashion culture and industry, and a critical awareness of the fashion industry, helping you to position your creative work in an ethically-informed and culturally competent manner.

Menswear Design
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

This project will provide you with an opportunity to explore menswear design and garment construction. We expect you to develop innovative, individual responses to personal research through the production of a contemporary menswear collection. During this term 1 project, we will introduce bespoke tailoring techniques, exploring both traditional and contemporary methods. Advanced pattern-cutting workshops relevant to contemporary menswear will underpin the production of your individual project work.

Fashion Design Internship
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

To support you in the identification of possible career networks and areas of employment, this module incorporates a period of work experience within a chosen field of the fashion design industry. Taking place at the beginning of the second term, a six to seven week internship will provide the opportunity to apply the specialist and transferable skills you have acquired so far in a professional setting. You will reflect on your experiences in the workplace through the production of a visual diary of your experiences that will be presented to your peers and tutors on your return to University.

Fashion Industry Project
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

Following your internship in term 2, you will be given a range of opportunities to enable direct engagement with fashion industry practice. We encourage you to consider how your own design practice demonstrates awareness of professional standards and client expectations. You will experience researching, designing and presenting your ideas to a specific client or design company by working on live industry projects and competitions

Year 3

Contextual Studies Research Project
(30 Credits)
- Compulsory

This project will allow you to engage with the identification, organisation and development of a substantial, in-depth, self-directed dissertation with a clear and sustained critical argument. We encourage the pursuit of a research topic related to issues explored in your own practice in any area of fashion. You will further develop critical awareness and self-reflection of historical and/or contemporary contexts of your discipline and research topic, building on primary and secondary research skills embedded in Years One and Two and developing your ability to identify, analyse and critically evaluate appropriate sources and research methods.

Collection Development and Portfolio
(90 Credits)
- Compulsory

This module will run throughout your final year, consolidating all previous learning to produce individual and creative fashion responses to personal research and concepts. You will work on negotiated briefs, exploring your own identity, working towards the development and production of your final collection and portfolio through negotiated, self-directed project briefs.

Teaching

Classes are held at our Dubai Knowledge Park campus Sunday to Thursday between 8:30am and 6:30pm. Additional sessions may be scheduled over the weekend or holiday periods and you should expect to receive notice of these in advance.

You will be actively involved in a range of learning, teaching and assessment approaches as part of your programme. These approaches ensure that you are involved and engaged by placing you at the centre of your own learning. You will be required to actively participate in learning activities and engagement with your fellow students, both individually and collaboratively. Faculty increasingly use existing and emerging technologies and your programme will be facilitated using a variety of media and online tools (My Learning on UniHub, podcasts, wikis, etc.) which will allow you access to a diverse range of online resources and learning materials. By engaging in e-learning you will also be developing skills of which are essential for your learning and highly valued by employers. Such skills including flexibility, communication, IT skills and team work.

You must have passed the full IB Diploma. In some cases applicants will also need to have studied certain subjects at Standard or Higher Level. If you are unsure about the suitability of your qualifications or would like help with your application, please contact admissions@mdx.ac.ae for support.

Students who have completed their GCSEs are eligible to join our International Foundation Programme – a one year programme to prepare students for entry onto our Undergraduate Programmes. Please note that students must meet the British AS and A Level entry requirements in order to gain entry into the First Year of any one of our Undergraduate Programmes.

Completion of Year 1 at a recognised post-secondary institution (university / college). Candidates that have successfully completed FSC/HSC are admitted to the Middlesex University’s International Foundation Programme (IFP)***

Students with American High School Diploma are eligible to join our Foundation programme. However, if you have passed the American High School Diploma with the university required GPA and SAT or ACT or AP Scores you may be eligible for direct entry into Year 1 of the undergraduate programme. If you are unsure about the suitability of your qualifications or would like help with your application, please contact admissions@mdx.ac.ae for support.

BTEC Level 3 qualifications***** (suite of qualifications known as Nationals) may be considered for direct entry into an undergraduate programme

***** BTEC qualifications (QCF) (suite of qualifications known as Nationals) are acceptable both on their own and in combination with other qualifications. Applicants are expected to have studied for the Diploma or Extended Diploma. The Certificate, Subsidiary Diploma and 90 Credit Diploma are expected to be studied in combination to equal that of at least the Diploma (for example, the Subsidiary Diploma would need to be offered in combination with either a Diploma or two GCE A levels).

Note: *** International Foundation Programme (IFP) is a one year programme to prepare students for entry to Undergraduate programmes

This list shows only a selection of qualifications. If your high school system does not appear here, please contact our Admissions Office admissions@mdx.ac.ae and we will be able to advise you further.

Entry onto this course requires a portfolio. Please speak to the Admissions Department for further information.

English Language Requirements (Undergraduate)

All programmes at Middlesex University Dubai are taught in English and applicants with previous education outside of English-speaking countries (such as the UK, the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand), must demonstrate English language proficiency as follows:

English Language Test

Entry Requirement

IELTS Academic

6.0 (minimum 5.5 in each band)

TOEFL Internet-based

72 (17 in listening & writing, 20 in speaking and 18 in reading)

PearsonPTE Academic

51

PearsonPTE General

Level 3

Additionally, students with the following qualifications may be considered as having met the English language requirements:

English Language

Entry Requirement

GCSE/IGCSE/O-Level English

(as a first or second language)

Grade C or Higher

CBSE/ISC boards/NIOS/All state boards

Minimum grade of 70% in English

International Baccalaureate

Minimum grade 4 in English A1 (Standard or Higher Level) in IB OR a minimum of grade 5 in English B (Higher Level)

West African/Nigerian Curriculum

WAEC/WASSCE/SSSCE

Minimum grade “C6“

For admissions related enquiries, kindly contact our admissions team on 0097143678100 / 0097143751212 alternatively you can email on admissions@mdx.ac.ae

Future Careers and Employability

Fashion Designers can be self-employed and setup their own label, but can also work with design studios or through an agency. The advanced development of a personal stylistic identity means that students are better placed to compete within the marketplace after they’ve graduated. Portfolios and projects will be assessed and viewed by a large number of industry employers are the final year degree show, providing further opportunity for employment and to build connections within the industry.